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  • From: "David Stabnow" <dstabno AT lifeway.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: 2 Sam 18:13a
  • Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:49:30 -0500


With the qere, it reads, )W-($YTY BNP&Y &QR ...

Most translations take the *sheqer* "lie" to be the soldier jeopardizing
himself: "And if I had put my life in jeopardy ..." (NIV) "If I had
betrayed myself ..." (JPS) This seems to be stretching the meaning of the
word. They may be following the KJV (and NKJV similarly): "Otherwise I
should have wrought falsehood against mine own life ..." But the KJV is
open to a different interpretation. The "falsehood" is not against the
soldier, but against the king -- it is a reference to the violation of King
David's order to spare Absalom (see NLT: "And if I had betrayed the king
..."). To violate the king's command, when the king is so all-seeing,
would effectively be an action against (B- of disadvantage) the soldier's
*nephesh*.

That is, "Or, if I had committed -- against my own best interests -- this
insubordination ..."

Is this a tenable translation?

Dave Stabnow




  • 2 Sam 18:13a, David Stabnow, 09/21/2001

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